Author Study Blogging Project
Grade – 9th Grade Beginners (Low, Intermediate, Advance) No. of ELL’s – 21
Topic/Aim: Students will use the technology of blogging and the author study curriculum to present their final group projects.
Curriculum/Academic Area Involved:
Standards: New York State ESL/ELA
• Standard 1: Students will listen, speak, read and write in English for information and understanding.
• Standard 2: Students will listen, speak, read and write in English for literary response, enjoyment, and expression.
• Standard 4: Students will listen, speak, read and write in English for classroom
and social interaction.
Standards: NETS
• Standard 1: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.
• Standard 2: Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
• Standard 3: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
• Standard 6: Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.
Objectives:
• Students will be able to navigate the web.
• Students will recognize blogging as a new form of peer communication.
• Students will understand elements of an author study.
• Students will be introduced to author study curriculum.
• Students will be introduced to new vocabulary and terminology associated with author study.
• Students will know specific terminology and media tools used for their blogs.
Instructional Materials/Resources
Pencils, chart paper, journals, projector, laptops, scanner
What students have been working on after they have been introduced to the author study project but prior to Day 1 of the blogging project...
-Read significant parts of Junot Diaz's books "Drown" and "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao".
-Been put into groups of 3.
-As a group, chose and read about another author and book of choice to compare/contrast to Junot Diaz's style of writing.
-Students have been through the writing process for their persuasive essays.
-Students have been introduced to teachers main blog page, ingles4ward.blogspot.com, as the model source and go to page for all instructional information to complete project.
Daily sessions and elements of blogging project are detailed below.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Presentation to Students - Junot Diaz Wins Pultizer Prize
Introduction to project
Latinos represent and be proud!! Junot Diaz is only the second U.S Latino who has won the very prestigious, very important book award called a Pulitzer Prize. We have read some of his stories from his first book "Drown" together in class. He has now released his new book, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao", which is his second work of fiction.
Class, please follow the directions of this assignment carefully. This assignment is due two (2) days from today. Be prepared to discuss and share with class. This is a graded assignment.
Directions...
Homework...
1. Click on this link http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2008/04/07/2008-04-07_junot_daz_wins_pulitzer_prize.html and read article titled "Dominican-American Author Junot Diaz Wins Pulitzer Prize for Fiction".
2. In your journal, write down the words you do not know, the sentence the word is found in, what you think the word means, and lastly, a new sentence using that word.
-At least five (5) new vocabulary words-
3. Print out a copy of the article and bring to class.
4. Type in the words "Pulitzer Prize" in the Google search engine and on a piece of paper to be handed in, write a paragraph summarizing what a Pulitzer Prize is, how does one get a Pulitzer Prize and what does it mean to win a Pulitzer Prize?
- Don't forget to include the site you got the information from!!!-
5. Also on the same piece of paper, in 3-4 sentences, infer from the title, the article and having read Junot Diaz's work before, what do you think this book is about?
6. Lastly, watch these two videos and see if your predictions about the book were correct. Do not change your answers because there are no right or wrong answers. We will also watch these two videos as a class and discuss the struggle Junot Diaz is talking about between using pure English and pure Spanish in talking and writing. This is a hot topic/debate for English Language Learners such as yourselves to get involved in!!
In Class...
7. Be prepared to write about and discuss in your journal the following reflection questions...
-What does it mean to you that a Latino has won such a big prize?
-What do you think this means for Latinos in general?
-How does this affect you personally?
-How do you think winning this prize will change Junot Diaz as a person?
Extra Credit!!!
On July 25, 2008 at 7:00pm in Central Park, Junot Diaz, and other authors, will be reading sections from his new book to the public. This is a free event and you can receive extra points towards your final project grade if you go to this event. I will be there as well.
See you tomorrow in class where we can discuss any questions you may have :) Ms. P
Day 1
-Students review and chart main elements of a story (ex. plot, setting, theme)
-In your groups, illustrate a 'Venn Diagram' graphic organizer to chart how the two authors are alike/different and what elements of the story are alike/different. Draw an image relevant to something in your two books. Here are some examples..be creative!
-As a class we will then scan and upload your diagrams. I will do a screen capture of your diagrams and upload to your blogs in the near future.
Day 2
-Today I will introduce blogging and proper blogging etiquette.
-Each group of students will create a blog address using Google Blogger. We will go through the steps as a class.
-Each group will create relevant, attention grabbing titles for their blogs focusing on strong, persuasive language and an introductory paragraph for your blog so visitors know the point of the blog.
Day 3
-Individually, you will prepare to publish your persuasive essays on your group blog using 'Scribd'.
-I will model the process of uploading work onto blog. Look at your RUBRIC for how you will be individually graded on your essay...I uploaded the rubric using 'Scribd'..this is how your essay will appear..check it out!
Day 4
-As a group you will upload content related pictures pertaining to your two authors stories, also adding short sentences (captions) to pictures that provide a brief summary of what the books are about.
-We will upload these photos to the blog.
-Volunteers will show to the class the progress they have made so far.
Day 5
-In your groups, you will choose one character from each book and create a 'Mind Mirror' for each, so that is two(2) 'Mind Mirrors'.
-This time, as a group, you will scan the illustrations and upload them to your blog as a 'screen capture'. Click on examples to enlarge to see directions for this assignment...
-See RUBRIC for this assignment
Day 6
-As a group, you will go to each of your classmates blog and post comments about the layout(creativity) of the blog and the elements concerning the rubric for the blog and give them a group grade. Make sure you use the BLOG RUBRIC to grade them.
-Individually, you will read one essay from each blog and post comments using positive reinforcement. Look at the persuasive essay rubric again and decide whether your classmate was convincing in his language and persuaded you to want to read his book choice. Site specific examples in your post.
***This will be homework if you do not finish in class***
Day 7
-Today we will have our blog publishing party!! Congrats on the hard work and be ready to show off your skills to neighboring classes and teachers who we have invited to share in our project finale!! I will show your blogs on a projector screen while your group navigates through the blog for the audience. Each group member must share a part of their persuasive essay with our audience.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Podcasts for ESL Classrooms
Encouraging spoken language in ESL classrooms is essential in fostering maximum student input and output. More importantly though, a critical skill in learning a language is listening. Before many of our ELLs can utter a word, they begin by listening to fluent speakers word formation. Using podcasts in the classroom can play vital roles in developing ELLs listening, reading, writing and speaking skills as many lesson plans and activities can intertwine with podcasts. English Language Listening Lab Online, or ELLLO, is a great resource to motivate beginner language learners with speaking opportunities and enhance intermediate and advance students vocabulary and dictation. This site uses English speakers from around the world and provides many situational dialogs pertinent to the lives of ELLs which can segue students into writing and speaking about sensitive issues plaguing their lives. Additionally, mini-lessons can easily be created to enrich podcasts and ensure student involvement. The podcasts listed on the site include topic related pictures, a needed stimulus for ELLs, provides the transcript of the audio that can easily be used for differentiating instruction for middle and high school levels and useful hyper links within the dialogs that explain certain grammatical structures, idioms or vocabulary. Overall, podcasts can prove to be beneficial for all audiences, especially ELLs, the tricky part is selecting content and age appropriate material.
http://www.elllo.org/index.htm
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